Thursday, September 21, 2006

The president of Yugoslavia, Marshal Tito, in New York for the United Nations General Assembly meeting, plans to meet with Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev and President Eisenhower. Tito, who has already taken advantage of the extraordinary session to meet with Fidel Castro, is attempting to form a block of countries that are neutral between East and West. Eisenhower will meet Tito but still plans to shun Castro, pointedly not invited to a luncheon for Latin delegates, and Khrushchev.

Leaders of 13 African nations that gained membership to the United Nations yesterday asked today for their continent to be left out of the Cold War.

Meanwhile, Khrushchev sang the "Internationale" from the balcony of the Soviet Union's mission headquarters on Park Avenue.

In Moscow, Soviet officials blamed the United States for scuttling its disarmament proposal at the United Nations.

Senator John F. Kennedy, Democratic candidate for president, rejected his Republican rival's call for a halt in discussions of U.S. weakness while Communist heads of state are in New York for the United Nations meeting. Kennedy, in a reference to Cuba, also criticized the Eisenhower-Nixon administration for allowing the creation of "a Communist satellite 90 miles off the coast of the United States." Kennedy was campaigning in Tennessee and Iowa.

Vice President Richard Nixon, the Republican candidate for president, called Kennedy the "spokesman" for those trying to run down the image of the United States. Nixon was campaigning in Missouri.

In New York City two people were shot in clashes between supporters and opponents of the Cuban government.

In the Laotian capital of Vientiane, Premier Souvanna Phouma said his government's military had halted a planned attack on the city by the Revolutionary Committee of Savannakhet.